She Illuminates the Dark
by Pearlinprocess
Summary: A rather strange and dark spiritual tale at first, but it ends on a sweet and happy note. This is the story of the very first meeting between Sofia and Cedric. And I really do mean, the absolute -first-... Rated T for dark and mature themes. Platonic Cedfia fluff. Hope you enjoy, and if you do, please review!


A child was crying in the darkness. He was alone and afraid. The only thing he could see in the overwhelming darkness was his own small hands, and the single source of light within them. He was holding a candelabrum with ten spots for candles, however, only one actually held a lit candle. That one, poor, pitiful candle flickered, struggling to stay lit in the endless dark, and the child quivered as he held it, trying not to let his frightened tears snuff out the light.

"Oh... Somebody help... My c-candle, it's w-weak..." The child sobbed, desperate for aide, but also terrified of what might be lurking in the dark.

So when the child noticed a set of eight strong flames coming towards him, at first he was scared. But when he saw the beautiful, albeit much older lady who was holding the new set of lights, he felt relief wash over him. She was so pretty. Her hair was faded brown, and flecked with silver. Her eyes, which glowed behind the red candle-light, were blue. Her dress looked very soft, and it was a lovely shade of purple. The young boy immediately felt much safer around her, even though he didn't yet know why.

She kneeled down in front of him, and kindly stroked his mop of coal-black hair. "You poor boy - What is a child as young as you doing all by yourself? Children shouldn't be left alone to wander in a place like this..."

"I don't know where I am, or how I got here..." He sniffled, and the nice lady nodded in understanding. "I've been alone for such a long time..."

"Surely there's someone we can find-" The kind woman murmured, reaching out and barely touching the child's single flame with the tip of her finger-

SICKNESS, POVERTY, FAMINE-

WAR, BLOOD, CARNAGE-!

...DARKNESS... SILENCE...

She immediately took the finger back again, her eyes wide with terror for a split second. Then she quickly calmed herself, and looked down in sadness. "Oh... I'm so sorry... You really are alone..."

The boy started to sniffle and cry again, but she quickly shushed him. "Don't cry, young one, I'm sorry - I misspoke. You're not alone anymore!"

He looked up doubtfully, "I'm... Not?"

Playfully, she tapped the end of his nose. "Nope! You've got me now. I'll look after you from now on." Much more solemnly, she added, "But you've got to promise to be on your best behavior with me, do you understand? Because, I can see you didn't behave yourself very well in your last life, and that's why you were all alone when you got here."

"It is...?" He looked down in shame. "I'm sorry... I didn't know I behaving badly..."

She fought back a heart-ache, remembering what else she'd seen in the poor child's former 'life', if one could really call it that... "There's no good excuse to misbehave, even when things aren't going well for you. But it wasn't really your fault, either..." Poor boy. Poor, poor boy...

"I promise I'll do much better next time!" He hurried to swear to her, desperate for her approval.

Smiling softly, she stroked his cheek, and he smiled back to her. "I believe you will, child. Now just wait a moment - Portals to the world of light sometimes open randomly in this place. I'll try to concentrate and find one for us to go through together. That way, when we're reborn, we can live together and I can consult you in life. Does that sound like a nice idea?"

He was grinning now, and nodded several times in excitement. He liked this lady very much. She was so nice to him, even though he had been bad, and she was so smart, finding a way to get them out of trouble. He wanted to do anything he could to please her.

So he obeyed flawlessly when she told him to be quiet and let her concentrate on finding a portal of light. He obeyed for a very long time. But children get antsy when they're bored, and so the boy was easily distracted when he noticed a very pretty, glittering ball of white light suddenly emerge from the darkness, just a short distance away from them.

"Look, pretty lady! There's one! A portal of light!" He exclaimed, taking off running in his excitement.

She gasped when she realized what the boy was doing, and she tried to call out to stop him. "Little boy, wait! You have to wait for me! If you go through first, you'll-!"

To her frustration and disappointment, despite her protests, the boy disappeared into the ball of light, well before she did...

In vain, she called for him one last time as she ran after him into the fading light, barely reaching it in time before it closed, "WAIT-!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"WAIT-!" Cedric called out, huffing and puffing as he trudged behind Sofia. She had been insisting he get out and get more exercise lately, and after a scolding from his father about being too pale and skinny, he finally agreed to it, if only to get the old man off of his back. But the spry young princess was much faster than him and had much more stamina, and was always leaving him well behind when they raced, which made him very grim and self-conscious.

She politely stopped for him, and ran in place while he caught up to her. "Come on, Mister Cedric! I can't keep stopping for you! You've got to keep up with me!"

"Oh!" He sighed melodramatically. "You! You wouldn't know what it's like to be old like me!" He complained, crossing his arms stubbornly.

Sofia gave him a disapproving glance, and reached up, taking him by the sleeve of his robe and pulling him down. Once they were eye-to-eye, she gave him a deep pout. "No more excuses!"

Somehow her scolding him was even worse than when his father did it, and he pouted back, nodding in reluctant acceptance. As soon as he did that, her sour expression turned into a small, sly grin, and she suddenly tapped him on the nose playfully as she replied, "Besides! I think it's -YOU- who has forgotten what it's like to be young!"

He straightened out and rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, you think so, do you?"

She snapped her fingers and pointed towards the horizon. "Yes I do! Now no more stalling! We've got to make up for lost time!"

Without waiting for him to add another sarcastic response, she grabbed his hand and took off running, dragging him behind her.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO


End file.
